Fed's Stein Was Open to Bond-Buy Cuts

Federal Reserve governor Jeremy Stein said he would have supported paring the central bank's bond purchases at its meeting last week, and he criticized the Fed's communications ahead of the meeting.

"It was a close call for me," Mr. Stein said at a conference in Frankfurt, referring to his vote last week in favor of maintaining the Fed's $85 billion-a-month pace of purchases. "I would have been comfortable" with...